******WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD********

Day 1 - Randy begins trials - Randy caught stealing grapes in AM
(Kabumpo is enjoying his "morning nap") - Kabumpo takes him as a
servant
Day 7 - Royal Family of Pumperdink enchanted at dinner ("you've been
here only a week") - Kabumpo escapes late at night/early morning
("as the great clock in the tower tolled one," and the night was
"dark and moonless")
Day 8 - Amethyst ball flashes once (on a "bright May morning" -
Hoochafoo notes that it has been "eight days" since Randy started
his trials) - Kabumpo & Randy encounter Nishibis/Faleero, meet
the Soothsayer, visit River Road "about noon," continue to Torpedo
Town, Stair Way, Delves - escape at evening (as "the sun was sinking
behind the purple hills"), meet Nandywog - dinner & night at
Nandywog's castle
Day 9 - Breakfast with Nandywog, visit Squeegees - arrive in Quadling
country ("in an hour they passed under the crimson arch leading into
the Red Land of Oz") - Guide Post Man takes them to Ev ("Just ten
minutes after they left the Quadling Country") - Jinnicky joins party
- they reach the Deadly Desert & cross after storm on Polychrome's
rainbow - Randy overcomes the Combinoceros before sunset ("the sun's
going down") - party captured by Double Men ("the last rays of the
setting sun touched the castle towers and golden roofs" of Double Up)
- Randy spends night in cellar - General Quakes leaves for Emerald City
Day 10 - Jinnicky releases Kabumpo & Randy in early morning
- they cross Winkie River & enter Gilliken territory around 3 PM
- meet Ozwoz - General Quakes spends night in EC
Day 11 - Breakfast with Ozwoz - return to Pumperdink "a little
after noon" - Jonwan captures Faleero - Ozma & Wizard arrive -
Jinnicky & Randy reach Faleero's hut "after an hour or so" - they
liberate the royal family - royal party arrives in Pumperdink late
in the afternoon ("it was almost night") - Randy completes tasks &
is named king of Regalia - festivities continue until early morning
("the clock in the great tower had tolled two")

From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <DinnerBell at t...>
Date: Tue Sep 11, 2001 12:33 am
Subject: BCF: Some basic observations on PURPLE PRINCE
One of the interesting things about PURPLE PRINCE is that it's the first Oz
book to reuse a minor Oz kingdom in a major role. There were mentions of
Oogaboo, Perhaps City, and the Yip Country after the books in which they
were introduced, but none of them were as significant to the plots of these
later books as Pumperdink is to PURPLE PRINCE. Kabumpo had already
reappeared in LOST KING, but PURPLE PRINCE features most of the primary
Pumperdinkians from KABUMPO, including Pompus, Pozy Pink, Pompadore, Peg
Amy, the Prime Pumper, General Quakes, and Faleero (who isn't a
Pumperdinkian, but lives quite close by).
As with YELLOW KNIGHT, all of the major characters in PURPLE PRINCE are
ones
introduced by Thompson. The cast is also all-male, and quite a bit smaller
than usual, with either three or four characters at the maximum (depending
on whether you count Johnwan as a character). The only visit to the Emerald
City is the very brief one by General Quakes, and only six Baum characters
actually show up. These facts all seem to indicate that Thompson has
essentially made Oz her own, and, while it's still clearly the same place
as
in Baum's books, his characters no longer need to show up in major roles
for
the story to be Ozzy.
At the end of KABUMPO, it is stated that Kabumpo and Prince Pompadore came
to live on Sun Top Mountain. They're back in Pumperdink again for LOST
KING, though, and this book keeps them there. There's no mention of Wag
living in Pumperdink, though, so I'm assuming that he stayed on Sun Top
Mountain.
Kabumpo's account of the events of KABUMPO is fairly accurate, although
there are a few mistakes when he describes Glegg's plans. He mentions that
Glegg has a "book of the future," and that he sent to scroll to
scare Pompa
into a marriage with another Princess, both of which do not really fit with
what we know from KABUMPO. Glegg's plot was rather complicated, though, so
we really can't blame the Elegant Elephant for failing to explain it
properly. Kabumpo also says that he "had about decided that Ozma was
the
proper princess for Pompa to marry," even though he was quite sure of
it,
but that was presumably just to hide his own ignorance. Note that, during
this adventure, Kabumpo is quite sure of something else that turns out not
to be true: that the Red Jinn lives in the Quadling Country.
I'll have more to say later, but I just thought I should make a few
observations to kick things off, since no one else has said anything on the
BCF. (The discussion WAS supposed to start on the tenth, right?)
Nathan

From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at m...>
Date: Wed Sep 12, 2001 11:39 am
Subject: pumperdink in oz
Nathan DeHoff: Enjoyed your discussion of "Purple Prince." You discuss its
revisiting of Pumperdink, using it as a main location instead of a minor
one. Similarly, this story brought back Jinnicky, who had been a minor
character in "Jack Pumpkinhead." Jinnicky is usually considered
one of RPT's
best characters (perhaps tied with Kabumpo for favorite), and this is the
book where she first develops his character. The Jinnicky in "JP"
is an
intriguing sketch, but not someone we get to know. He's given a slightly
less dramatic setting (the sea is a glassy green, rather than literally
being a surging mass of shards of broken glass), but more detailed in
location (part of Ev, rather than an un-named Arabian-Nightsish anywhere)
and more populous, and he gets to play out the action he sets going -- and
to express his frustration at not having seen firsthand what happened to
Jack in the earlier book. He makes a good foil for Kabumpo, rather as Humpy
did in "Lost King," except that instead of Humpy's innocence to
provoke
Kabumpo's pomposity (and his willingness to be sorry afterward and admit
it), it's Jinnicky's insouciant expertise.
Ruth Berman

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Fri Sep 14, 2001 4:12 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE as sequel
Nathan DeHoff wrote:
<<One of the interesting things about PURPLE PRINCE is that it's the first
Oz book to reuse a minor Oz kingdom in a major role.>>
Thanks for putting it that way. I was trying to formulate how Thompson's
approach to this book differed from all others. It wasn't the first sequel
in the series, obviously, and it wasn't even a direct follow-up to a
mystery advanced in an earlier book (ROYAL BOOK and YELLOW KNIGHT fall into
that category). But it's rare for any small Oz kingdom to have to be put
right TWICE.
Thompson was in the middle of a spate of sequels here between GIANT HORSE
and WISHING HORSE. They all start with characters introduced in previous Oz
books, often her own: Peter, Sir Hokus, Ruggedo, Pompus, Ojo, and Speedy. I
think this is the longest stretch of her books without one starting in some
new country in or outside Oz.
As Ruth Berman pointed out, PURPLE PRINCE is when Thompson finally turns
the Red Jinn into a major, rounded character. In PIRATES she brought him
into the Nonestic world somewhere, and here we know exactly where. The sea
that was clearly [!] made of glass in JACK PUMPKINHEAD is here merely
"glassy" [136]. In this book we also finally learn Jinnicky's
given name
[148].
Another curiosity about PURPLE PRINCE in terms of what's come before is
that Neill's frontmatter drawings almost all show new characters, not
Emerald City favorites. There's a small, silhouetted Jack on the title
page, but the "This Book Belongs to," copyright, author's note,
dedication,
and contents pages present unfamiliar folks (a couple of whom remain
unfamiliar to me even after I've read the book). I don't know what the
color frontispiece shows, but that way of bringing readers into the story
indicates confidence on Neill's part that they didn't need to see lots of
established Oz faces.
<<PURPLE PRINCE features most of the primary Pumperdinkians from
KABUMPO,
including Pompus, Pozy Pink, Pompadore, Peg Amy, the Prime Pumper, General
Quakes, and Faleero (who isn't a Pumperdinkian, but lives quite close
by).>>
A couple of meaningful differences appear in how these characters reappear.
Neill seems to have forgotten how he pictured Pompus was a long, pointed
beard before (at least in one drawing; another, which looks recycled, shows
a king with a shorter, bushy beard). In PURPLE PRINCE the king comes out
looking like Ato in PIRATES [17, 23, 268]. Neill also draws Peg Amy as a
doll in a different way [31, 33].
Also, I don't think Thompson uses the name Pozy Pink in the first chapters
of the book; she's just "the Queen." Not until after Kabumpo
returns to
Pumperdink does the name "Pozy" appear [259].
We see many of the same plot elements as in KABUMPO, some pared down and
others made more dire. Kabumpo himself makes the comparison: "Last
time we
wee only threatened. This time everybody has actually vanished" [47].
By
cutting out the romantic plot is cut out, Thompson can concentrate on
Randy's quest, which turns out to be even more significant than we know at
first. That lets Faleero finally marry into the Pumperdink dynasty,
converting the vacuum of royals into actual tyranny [213].
At times, in fact, Thompson seems to be recycling details from KABUMPO.
Randy decides he's going to follow Pompa's footsteps, down to a wife and
daughter [38]. Just as the Illumi Nation burned Kabumpo's robes and Pompa's
pompadore, so the torpedomen burn Kabumpo's new robes and Randy's hair
[87]. Randy even wears a pompadore himself [137--but see also 53].
<<only six Baum characters actually show up.>>
One of them, curiously, is Jack Pumpkinhead [247]. It seems unlikely that
he'd want to go on adventures like others in the Emerald City, and his
fragility and intellect make him an odd companion for Ozma to choose. He's
the only person from the Emerald City to have met the Red Jinn before, but
Ozma doesn't show any knowledge that the Red Jinn would be in Pumperdink
when she arrived and Jack and Jinnicky are never shown renewing their
acquaintance. In fact, Jack doesn't say or do anything during the visit.
This seems to be a thread Thompson left out for herself and never tied or
cut off.
<<during this adventure, Kabumpo is quite sure of something else that
turns
out not to be true: that the Red Jinn lives in the Quadling
Country.>>
That seems to be an integral part of Kabumpo's character, or at least his
function in most of the Oz novels in which he plays a role equal to his
girth. In KABUMPO, as you say, he's convinced Ozma is the proper princess.
In LOST KING he believes Humpy is the king. In FORBIDDEN FOUNTAIN he
believes he's found criminals to take back to the Emerald City. I forget if
he's off on the wrong foot in SILVER PRINCESS as well, but it obviously
wouldn't be the first time.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Fri Sep 14, 2001 4:12 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE elegant elephant
Last week there was a brief discussion of the possibility of Ozzy erotica.
PURPLE PRINCE actually hints that such a thing might exist in Oz.
Describing the Quadling Country, Kabumpo says, "Everything is red
there,
even the bluest books" [64]. The word "bluest" here must be
a metaphor, and
when applied to literature it usually meant erotic.
It makes some sense that Kabumpo would know about erotica since he's every
inch (and there a lot) a bachelor gentleman. Neill draws him in a dinner
jacket (tuxedo) for the crucial dinner party [25], and puts a ship's model
in his room [49]. He jokes about wanting a "smoking jacket" [87].
The
elegant elephant may also be letting himself grow older since Thompson says
he needs glasses to see [67--presumably the same pair he's wearing on the
cover].
At the start of the book Kabumpo provides the calm counterweight to
Pompus's mercurial moods [18]. With the Pumperdink royal family gone,
however, the elephant starts to despair, and Randy has to push him into
action [47].
Thereafter, Kabumpo displays his usual curmudgeonly behavior on adventures:
complaining ["I never cared for these underground peoples"--98],
disdaining
help [he skirts the Emerald City--122], condescending to anyone he doesn't
know is royal [the priceless moment when he offers Jinnicky jewels--144].
As the Jinn concludes, "he's the kind of animal who calls an orange a
citrus fruit and a porch a piazza, but I'm kind of fond of the big begonia
anyway" [279]
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Fri Sep 14, 2001 4:11 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE timing
Thompson's author note for PURPLE PRINCE is unusually brief, just a little
longer than her dedication, but it manages to pack a lot of implications
inside:
Dear Boys and Girls:
I hope you like this gay Oz adventure. Tell me
if you do! It all happened about the time the June
Bug came out of storage, and just about the time next
year's snow balls are ripe, I'll be writing you
another story.
Oz always,
RUTH PLUMLY THOMPSON.
Later we learn a "fresh May breeze" is blowing in Double Up
[198], which I
suppose is close enough to june bug time.
Thompson thus says that the events she's relating occurred at a specific
time, but also that she'll be coming up with another Oz story on a set
schedule. One could read that last line to mean that around snow ball
season she's going to select a series of events from recent Oz history to
tell, but this portrayal of writing Oz books is really closer to what Eric
Shanower has described in recent postings. Namely, the authors makes up the
stories, and although the events are fiction and thus never occur, there's
a particular time in the year preceding publication at which they don't
occur. Could it be that Eric actually knows something about the process of
writing Oz stories?!
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Fri Sep 14, 2001 5:49 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE structure
One of the nice qualities I noticed about PURPLE PRINCE this time through
is its storytelling structure. The book falls neatly into two symmetric
acts, each ten chapters long. We meet Randy in chapter 1, learn about
Pumperdink in chapter 2, and then face the crisis of the vanished royal
family. Through chapter 9 Kabumpo and Randy move steadily south to meet the
Guide Post Man, then disappear. Closing out that act we have a brief,
not-explicitly-connected scene in Regalia, adding more importance to the
purple prince's quest.
Chapter 11 picks up the story in Jinnicky's castle, and seven of the next
eight chapters are another journey south, this time to Pumperdink instead
of from it. Chapter 16, "Meanwhile, in Pumperdink," alerts us to
the
situation there, heightening the tension. It also brings back General
Quakes from Chapter 1, opening a new line of possible rescue. After the
royal family is rescued, we have a celebratory banquet that mirrors chapter
2 and another sight of the Regalians that provides the conclusion for
chapter 10.
Thompson's climaxes often depend on coincidence and the Wizard's magic, but
in PURPLE PRINCE she generally avoids those easy exits. She does say that
Randy accidentally clicks Johnwan's remote control five times, causing him
to grab Faleero; I think that would have been stronger if Randy had clicked
the command deliberately as Faleero stopped her live opponents in their
tracks and then discovered she couldn't do anything to stop the wooden
soldier [239]. But the deus and dea ex machina who arrive in the form of
the Wizard and Ozma [251] turn out to be unable to restore the Pumperdink
royal family. And while Randy discovers that family in Faleero's fireplace
by luck, he actually has to use his head more than Jinnicky fears he would
to regain Johnwan [257].
PURPLE PRINCE relies on the Soothsayer's prophecy to lead Kabumpo and
Randy: "In the castle of the Red Jinn you will find what you
seek" [63]
This "tall weird" prophet hardly seems like a reliable fellow, yelling
"Sooth!", asking for baksheesh, and looking even weirder in
Neill's
drawings (especially the one in which his fingertips spell out "SOOTH
SAYER"--61). But Kabumpo and Randy trust him, even though first
misinterpreting the prophecy to mean the Jinn has the royal family in his
castle. The Soothsayer also turns out to be correct that "A person of
high
rank and extreme importance [but not Kabumpo] is traveling toward the
Emerald City." His other piece of advice, "Step by step goes a
long way,"
seems to forecast only one of the many kingdoms Randy and Kabumpo visit,
however [94].
Thompson also gives us the roadmap of the seven secret conditions for
becoming king of Regalia. Again, that provides a structure for the book,
and explains (as if we couldn't guess from reading her other books) why
Randy refuses to speak of his family [19] or the future [123], and why
Kabumpo senses he's "no common mountain boy" [54]. It looks like
the
crystal ball first flashes when Randy catches Nishibis's twigs [45, 134,
274]. I'm guessing that the last condition was to "faithfully serve a
strange King," fulfilled when Pompus offers Randy the title of Younger
Prince of the Realm [268--Kabumpo also being a prince by appointment, not
birth]. The seven conditions aren't so clear that we can flip back to them
while reading the book, but they do provide a sense of structure, not
randomness, guiding these events.
Also involved in the storytelling structure is how Thompson uses point of
view in the early chapters. Chapter 1 has an omniscient narrator outside
any character's head, allowing Thompson to drop her first hint about
Randy's quest ("I wonder how long it will take me!"--24) at the
end without
also having to tell us what he's talking about. Chapter 2 is all very much
in Kabumpo's point of view, down to the haughtiness [e.g., 27]. Thus, by
the time Thompson puts us inside Randy's head for the first time, at the
busy start of chapter 3, we've come to know and identify with him without
having to know what his background is.
Thereafter, except for the couple of chapters away from the quest (10 and
16), Thompson mostly tells us what Randy's thinking, with occasional peeks
into Kabumpo's head. That perspective allows us to know when the boy is at
odds with his elephantine mentor even before he's ready to speak up [e.g.,
128, 165, 173]. There's a brief, awkward moment on page 191 when both Randy
and Kabumpo are knocked senseless, but generally Thompson keeps us seeing
what the boy sees.
The next exceptions are in chapters 18 and 19, when it's important for us
NOT to know what Randy's thinking when he has a "splendid idea"
[247] and
later when he dashes away from Faleero's cottage [257]. Thompson prepares
us for those moments in two ways, I think. First, leading up to the more
restricted point of view she provides a lot of strong visual images and
actions in place of anyone's thoughts; we get used to not knowing what
Randy or other characters are thinking from inside. Second, shortly after
Randy starts to act on his unknown plans--i.e., just when we're ready to
ask what the author is hiding from us--Thompson distracts us with busy
scenes of Ozma's party arriving and Jinnicky's false deduction of where the
boy has gone.
We remain outside Randy's head through the early part of the celebration
banquet until Hoochafoo and Chalulu arrive, thus preserving the secret of
his identity until the proper moment [272]. The last chapter of PURPLE
PRINCE, like the first two, is mostly in omniscient narration and in
Kabumpo's head. The new king of Regalia even departs from the scene, but
not from his friends' thoughts.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "John W. Kennedy" <jwkenne at a...>
Date: Fri Sep 14, 2001 10:11 pm
Subject: Re: [Nonestica] PURPLE PRINCE elegant elephant
"J. L. Bell" wrote:
>
> Last week there was a brief discussion of the possibility of Ozzy
erotica.
> PURPLE PRINCE actually hints that such a thing might exist in Oz.
> Describing the Quadling Country, Kabumpo says, "Everything is red
there,
> even the bluest books" [64]. The word "bluest" here
must be a metaphor, and
> when applied to literature it usually meant erotic.
Perhaps, but there are other sorts of "blue book", such as the
blue-colored blank books used for many decades in the US for school test
answers.
--
John W. Kennedy
(Working from my laptop)

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Sat Sep 15, 2001 11:21 am
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE elegant elephant
John W. Kennedy wrote:
<<> Last week there was a brief discussion of the possibility of
Ozzy
erotica.
> PURPLE PRINCE actually hints that such a thing might exist in Oz.
> Describing the Quadling Country, Kabumpo says, "Everything is red
there,
> even the bluest books" [64]. The word "bluest" here
must be a metaphor,
and
> when applied to literature it usually meant erotic.
Perhaps, but there are other sorts of "blue book", such as the
blue-colored
blank books used for many decades in the US for school test
answers.>>
Colleges may still use blue books for exams, though we don't know whether
Thompson and her young readers would have been familiar with those. But
that sort of blue book doesn't come in gradations of blue--there's no
"bluest" book for the toughest exams which Kabumpo could have
been
referring to. And if the elegant one were joking about objects actually
colored blue, he had no reason for him to single out books.
As a metaphorical comparison, "bluest" seems to have two common
uses in
1932: sad and erotic. And the erotic meaning seems to have been much more
commonly applied to books.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <DinnerBell at t...>
Date: Sat Sep 15, 2001 1:58 pm
Subject: Re: [Nonestica] PURPLE PRINCE elegant elephant
J. L. Bell:
>The elegant elephant may also be letting himself grow older since
Thompson
>says
>he needs glasses to see [67--presumably the same pair he's wearing on
the
>cover].
Thompson doesn't seem to be entirely consistent in this respect, since, in
Chapter 9, she has Kabumpo read the "small sign" on the Post
Man's back with
no apparent trouble.
Is there any indication that Kabumpo DIDN'T need glasses at the time of
KABUMPO? I don't have the book handy, but I'm pretty sure he reads the
message about knocking before you fall in outside the Illumi Nation.
Perhaps this was written largely and clearly enough for him not to need his
glasses, though.
Incidentally, do elephants typically have bad eyesight? I know Thompson
referred to Kabumpo's "little eyes" on several occasions, and
maybe she
thinks such eyes wouldn't be especially good for reading.
Nathan

From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <DinnerBell at t...>
Date: Sat Sep 15, 2001 2:02 pm
Subject: Re: [Nonestica] PURPLE PRINCE structure
J. L. Bell:
>It looks like the
>crystal ball first flashes when Randy catches Nishibis's twigs [45,
134,
>274].
This is what I always thought, but there seems to have been some mistake on
Thompson's part, since Randy catches the twigs in the evening, and the
amethyst ball first flashes on a "bright May morning."
Nathan

From: atty993 at a...
Date: Sat Sep 15, 2001 3:20 pm
Subject: Re: PURPLE PRINCE elegant elephant
---
In Nonestica at y..., "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...> wrote:
> Last week there was a brief discussion of the possibility of Ozzy
erotica.
> PURPLE PRINCE actually hints that such a thing might exist in Oz.
> Describing the Quadling Country, Kabumpo says, "Everything is red
there,
> even the bluest books" [64]. The word "bluest" here
must be a
metaphor, and
> when applied to literature it usually meant erotic.
I think it could just as likely mean "sad," or
"saddening." For
instance, _The Scarlet Letter_ is read, and even "red," but also
one
of the bluer books I know.
Atticus

From: "John W. Kennedy" <jwkenne at a...>
Date: Sun Sep 16, 2001 10:32 am
Subject: Re: [Nonestica] PURPLE PRINCE elegant elephant
"J. L. Bell" wrote:
>
> John W. Kennedy wrote:
> <<> Last week there was a brief discussion of the possibility
of Ozzy
> erotica.
> > PURPLE PRINCE actually hints that such a thing might exist in Oz.
> > Describing the Quadling Country, Kabumpo says, "Everything
is red there,
> > even the bluest books" [64]. The word "bluest" here
must be a metaphor,
> and
> > when applied to literature it usually meant erotic.
>
> Perhaps, but there are other sorts of "blue book", such as
the blue-colored
> blank books used for many decades in the US for school test
answers.>>
>
> Colleges may still use blue books for exams, though we don't know
whether
> Thompson and her young readers would have been familiar with those.
But
> that sort of blue book doesn't come in gradations of blue--there's no
> "bluest" book for the toughest exams which Kabumpo could
have been
> referring to. And if the elegant one were joking about objects
actually
> colored blue, he had no reason for him to single out books.
>
> As a metaphorical comparison, "bluest" seems to have two
common uses in
> 1932: sad and erotic. And the erotic meaning seems to have been much
more
> commonly applied to books.
Nevertheless, everything I know about the period and RPT screams that
this cannot have been in her mind.
There are other "blue books". The famous used-car price guide,
and
other price guides in other fields, such as coin collecting. The Guides
Bleus. The official directory of US Government Employees. Official
reports by Parliament, and, therefore, any book-length work of the sort
that, when shorter, is called a "white paper". 1932 is just too
early
for it to be any kind of reference to the NRA, but perhaps there were
Hooverian "blue books" about the depression. Or could it have
been a
slang allusion to the Social Register?
--
John W. Kennedy
(Working from my laptop)

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Sun Sep 16, 2001 4:33 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE structure
Nathan DeHoff wrote:
<<>It looks like the
>crystal ball first flashes when Randy catches Nishibis's twigs [45,
134,
>274].
This is what I always thought, but there seems to have been some mistake on
Thompson's part, since Randy catches the twigs in the evening, and the
amethyst ball first flashes on a "bright May morning.">>
We know that May morning is "eight days" after the prince left
Regalia
[133], and the dinner party occurs "a week" after Randy became
elephant boy
in Pumperdink [27]. We don't know how long Randy's journey to Pumperdink
took. A possible alternate explanation, therefore, is that the ball first
judges that Randy has managed to "faithfully serve a strange
king," and it
flashes again off-stage on the evening when he proves his bravery.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Sun Sep 16, 2001 4:33 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE elegant elephant
Nathan DeHoff wrote:
<<>The elegant elephant may also be letting himself grow older
since
Thompson
>says
>he needs glasses to see [67--presumably the same pair he's wearing on
the
>cover].
Is there any indication that Kabumpo DIDN'T need glasses at the time of
KABUMPO?>>
It seems significant that Thompson mentions Kabumpo's eyeglasses shortly
before he plunges into the River Road--i.e., she needed a reason for him
not to see what lay just in front of his flexible nose.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Sun Sep 16, 2001 6:28 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE Randy
****SPOILER****
This message contains some observations about Kabumpo's new elephant boy
Randy which require divulging that he's really Randywell Handywell
Brandenburg Bompadoo, Prince of the Purple Mountain, seeking to become King
of Regalia.
To begin with, I find it meaningful that Randy's father has deserted him.
As Chalulu says, "The King...has chosen to retire from the throne and
pursue the life of a hermit in the mountains" [133]. We don't seem to
hear
anything at all about Randy's mother. He clearly has the support of his
uncle Hoochafoo, who makes a good contrast to Pompa's uncle Kettywig
(Hoochafoo is also the previous king's brother and possibly next in line
for the throne, but he wants to see his nephew successful and safe).
Nonetheless, Randy might be dealing with some emotional trauma as well as
the challenge of succession.
Thompson tells us that Regalia's kings "have come down in straight
succession for more than a thousand years," with no prince failing the
scroll's tests [if given enough time--129, 133]. The law of succession
provides for "the passing, abdication or retirement" of a ruler
[133],
which means someone anticipated a situation like this. But the old king's
decision seems to have been abrupt, possibly forcing Randy out into the
world before he's grown to the age for which those seven challenges were
designed. Significantly, Hoochafoo complains the tasks are too hard for
"one small prince" [134].
Randy's hurt and worry might come out in surliness. After the boy spends a
week in elegant company, Kabumpo still finds him "sulky," full of
"sauciness and independence" [26-7]. Presumably part of Kabumpo's
impression comes from Randy not being servile, having "too much
style"
[54]. Not until after Kabumpo tells him the story of KABUMPO does Randy
call his employer "sir" [35--cf. 52]. Another part of the
elephant's
impression reflects Randy's real impatience for adventure, or at least
variety, so he can finish his tasks. But even on the road the boy is
independent and occasionally sarcastic (e.g., "Well, won't that be
nice?"
[84]). In sum, for all the concern about being a successful prince that he
shares with Pompa and Tatters, Randy seems less courteous than those
previous princes.
Boldness isn't the same thing as proven bravery, however, and Randy's
concerned he'll be up to that test. "It's awfully important to be
brave!"
he says [53]; "I hope I am going to be brave!" [104--cf. 105]
Randy has
probably guessed that the conditions he must fulfill require courage. In
one important respect, however, Randy's still timid. He wishes that Kabumpo
and Jinnicky would "stop snapping at each other" [173], but he's
not bold
enough to tell them. It takes one type of bravery to risk harm by
protecting friends, but another to tell friends to change a little. Yet the
scroll requiring the new king to "make three true friends" pushes
him to
develop both skills.
The back of Randy's mind seems to contain another worry, about not being
able to leave Regalia again once he's completed his mission. He travels
almost as a tourist. "I want to see all of Oz before I [go
home]," he says
[54]. In Nandywog's realm he tells Kabumpo, "We'll always remember
this as
one of the good places" [114]. "I'd like to have something to
remind me of
this place," he says about the Squee Gees [120]. "I wish I could
see Ozma
and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion," he laments [123]. In the end
he
promises, "As soon as I'm crowned I'll run away and come back" to
Kabumpo
[277]; it takes a few years, of course, but eventually Thompson comes back
to King Randy's yearning.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at m...>
Date: Mon Sep 17, 2001 12:10 pm
Subject: "Purple Prince"
J.L. Bell: Enjoyed your discussions of two-halves structure of "Purple
Prince" and other aspects. On viewing all sides from a safe distance
-- that
might be meant as an indication that he walked around it in a circle with a
long radius? // The color frontispiece was a drawing of Randy and Jinnicky
and Kabumpo skidding down the rainbow (quite handsome, as Neill's rainbow
pictures usually were) -- unfamiliar characters to the extent of being not
Baum's, although Kabumpo and Jinnicky would have been familiar to RPT's
readers, and so would the motif of the rainbow as a road.
Nathan DeHoff: I'm not sure if RPT would have taken it as an indication of
bad eyesight, but elephants do actually have little eyes -- or, rather,
their eyes look little to humans, used to a ratio of eye-to-head size in
themselves that doesn't carry through when applied to animals as large as
elephants.
Ruth Berman

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Mon Sep 17, 2001 12:44 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE elegant elephant
John W. Kennedy wrote:
<<There are other "blue books". The famous used-car price
guide, and other
price guides in other fields, such as coin collecting. The Guides Bleus.
The official directory of US Government Employees. Official reports by
Parliament, and, therefore, any book-length work of the sort that, when
shorter, is called a "white paper". 1932 is just too early for it
to be
any kind of reference to the NRA, but perhaps there were Hooverian
"blue
books" about the depression. Or could it have been a slang allusion to
the
Social Register?>>
Official Parliament reports even gave rise to the British adjective
"blue-booky," referring to their literary style. There are also
"blue
laws," said to be derived from blue-bound Connecticut law books
(though
such volumes have never been found, as I recall). And "blue"
ironically has
a whiff of the puritanical as well as the prurient, as in
"bluestocking."
However, you've rightly urged people to examine the actual usage of words
we're examining in period and in context. Here's the passage from PURPLE
PRINCE:
"Still, if there's a Red Jinn--" Kabumpo began to move
swiftly in the direction the soothsayer had taken. "If
he's a Red Jinn his castle must be in the Quadling
Country, for that is the reddest Kingdom in Oz.
Everything there is red, even the bluest books."
Trumpeting with pleasure at his own cleverness,
Kabumpo flung forward at such a pace that Randy had all
he could do to stay aboard and no breath at all to ask
questions. [64]
Thompson didn't have Kabumpo say, "Everything there is red, even the
blue
books." She used "bluest." If we could find common
contemporary references
to exam booklets, used-car guides, British government reports, or the
Social Register as "bluer" or "bluest" or "more
blue" or "full of blue,"
that reading would indeed make more sense in an Oz book than a reference to
erotica. If we could find evidence that critics or readers in the 1930s
often referred to sad books as "blue," that would also make more
sense as
what Thompson was alluding to.
But I don't recall coming across such usage in my reading. The OED doesn't
offer any examples, though it does give a 1930s example of using the erotic
meaning of "blue" in relative terms: the ECONOMIST describing
songs as "not
vulgar exactly, but...'a bit on the blue side'" in 1935.
The only use of the phrase "bluest book" that I've come across
roughly
contemporary with PURPLE PRINCE is from FINNEGAN'S WAKE, published in 1939:
Four things therefore, saith our herodotary Mammon
Lujius in his grand old historiorum, wrote near
Boriorum, bluest book in baile's annals, f t. in
Dyffinarsky ne'er sall fail til heathersmoke and
cloudweed Eire's ile sall pall.
I hope that makes everything clear.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: David Hulan <davidhulan at n...>
Date: Tue Sep 18, 2001 10:55 am
Subject: The Blues
J.L.:
> And "blue" ironically has
>a whiff of the puritanical as well as the prurient, as in
"bluestocking."
I think you're confusing "bluestocking" with
"bluenose." A
bluestocking is an intellectual female; the puritanical types who
censor erotica were, at least in my experience, called bluenoses. I'm
not sure why; possibly because they were originally most prominent in
New England, where the climate can produce that effect in the
winter...

From: David Hulan <davidhulan at n...>
Date: Tue Sep 18, 2001 10:57 am
Subject: Purple Prince
One oddity in _Purple Prince_ that no one has mentioned so far (at
least that I've noticed) is that it has the only female character I
can recall from the entire series who is both beautiful and wicked -
Delva. Anyone recall any others?

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Tue Sep 18, 2001 11:19 am
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE art
Thanks, Ruth Berman, for the description of the PURPLE PRINCE frontispiece:
<<The color frontispiece was a drawing of Randy and Jinnicky and
Kabumpo
skidding down the rainbow (quite handsome, as Neill's rainbow pictures
usually were) -- unfamiliar characters to the extent of being not Baum's,
although Kabumpo and Jinnicky would have been familiar to RPT's readers,
and so would the motif of the rainbow as a road.>>
I think Neill's only illustration of Jinnicky before PURPLE PRINCE was a
color plate in JACK PUMPKINHEAD, in which he looks nothing like the many
later drawings. So Kabumpo (who also appears on the PURPLE PRINCE cover)
would have been the only familiar face in this art for the book's first
readers. Of course, having played a big role in two Oz books already, one
named after him, the elephant was familiar to devoted fans.
Another observation on Neill's frontmatter art for PURPLE PRINCE is how the
pictures of Randy lead up to the story's beginning. Page 13 (the dedication
page) shows him picking the forbidden grapes. Page 15 (table of contents)
seems to portray a suspicious Pumperdink official. Page 16 shows Randy
caught with the grapes at his feet. The book begins with Pompus demanding,
"Who is this boy?" and readers would be asking the same question.
On the cover of PURPLE PRINCE, furthermore, Randy has a big supply of
grapes. The mountainous castle in the background is more likely Regalia
than Pumperdink, so the cover might show when Kabumpo comes to visit Randy
as the last chapter promises, perhaps bringing the grapes as a gift from
Pompus. But so many Neill covers are merely conglomerations of book
characters.
The cover art is also notable in how Neill eschews blank ink outlines for
the castle and cliffs in the background, making them seem distant.
One other PURPLE PRINCE illustration I like a lot is Jinnicky sulking on
page 248, at the end of chapter 18.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "John W. Kennedy" <jwkenne at a...>
Date: Wed Sep 19, 2001 12:29 pm
Subject: Re: [Nonestica] The Blues
David Hulan wrote:
> I think you're confusing "bluestocking" with
"bluenose." A
> bluestocking is an intellectual female; the puritanical types who
> censor erotica were, at least in my experience, called bluenoses. I'm
> not sure why; possibly because they were originally most prominent in
> New England, where the climate can produce that effect in the
> winter...
I think there's more to it than that. The ferry that used to run (and
still does, for all I know to the contrary) from Halifax to Bar Harbor
was the S.S. Bluenose.
(Of course, there was also the character on "Spin and Marty"
whose oath
of choice was, "Waalll, I'll be a blue-nosed gopher!")
--
John W. Kennedy
(Working from my laptop)

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Wed Sep 19, 2001 12:56 pm
Subject: beautiful and wicked women
David Hulan wrote:
<<One oddity in _Purple Prince_ that no one has mentioned so far (at
least
that I've noticed) is that it has the only female character I can recall
from the entire series who is both beautiful and wicked - Delva. Anyone
recall any others?>>
In DOROTHY & WIZARD, Baum describes the Mangaboo princess as "the
beautiful
girl on the bush," and as "a girl so exquisitely formed and
colored and so
lovely in the expression of her delicate features that Dorothy thought she
had never seen so sweet and adorable a creature in all her life." She
turns
out to be heartless, which may not be the same thing as wicked.
Baum presents some other physically attractive female antagonists who
aren't really wicked--they just have their own goals. Among these are
Jinjur ("pretty enough"), Nimmie Amee ("very pretty"),
and Reera ("fully as
lovely as the three Adepts").
Since Neill drew many human characters' faces similarly, I find it hard to
sort out my memories of who's supposed to be attractive and who's not. For
instance, I don't believe Baum ever says anything about Mrs. Yoop's face,
but since Neill gives her much the same profile as Glinda, I tend to recall
her in the "beautiful and wicked" category. Delva gets the same
features,
too, so the attractiveness of this "little gray elfin
lady"/"pretty little
creature" might be enhanced by Neill's picture [100].
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Wed Sep 19, 2001 12:56 pm
Subject: OFF TOPIC: The Blues
David Hulan wrote:
<<I think you're confusing "bluestocking" with
"bluenose." A bluestocking
is an intellectual female; the puritanical types who censor erotica were,
at least in my experience, called bluenoses. I'm not sure why; possibly
because they were originally most prominent in New England, where the
climate can produce that effect in the winter...>>
The original bluestockings were members of one of the Puritan Parliaments
of the mid-1600s. But I should have acknowledged that the term's since been
applied more often to intellectually active women. I think some of those
have been criticized for being puritanical, but others for being libertine,
so that contradiction may be a case of assertive women not being allowed to
win.
It does look like the term "blue-nosed" was meant to invoke New
Englanders.
Washington Irving, the first to use it according to the OED, wasn't from
much farther south, but already there was a New York-Boston literary
rivalry.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at m...>
Date: Thu Sep 20, 2001 12:52 pm
Subject: purple pictures in oz
More on Neill's use of doubles between color plates and b&w. In "Purple
Prince," my copy is lacking the CP opposite p. 136. I would guess this
is a
view of Randy and Kabumpo entering Jinnicky's palace, and not a doublet of
any b&w illo, although if it's a portrait of Jinnicky alone alone, it
might
be similar to the b&w view of Jinnicky inside the chapter (or if it's a
view
of Regalia, as is possible from the placement, it could possibly be a
portrait of Hoochafoo or Chalulu and thus a doublet). My guess is it's not
a
doublet. Of the rest, one is almost an exact doublet, but reversed, the
color plate & small b&w versions of Jinnicky strewing blue incense
-- placed
dramatically opposite one another on a double spread, forming a mirror
image. Three are moderately similar to b&w illos (Randy straightening
Kabumpo's bow tie to get him ready for dinner, similar to b&w of K
winding
trunk around R to choose him as attendant; R&K going over river falls,
similar to although more dramatic than the b&w of them caught in the
river
flow; Jinnicky with R&K inside blue vase protected against giant wooden
soldiers, similar to Jinnicky leaning out of hole in vase to speak with
Ozwoz). Six are not doubled (nearing Nandywog's castle, Postman with
R&K
shooting "up like roman candles," Polychrome dancing on Kabumpo's
trunk,
Jinnicky hidden in jar carried by drummer pair, Ozma and companions
arriving
in Pumperdink, and Pompus thanking Jinnicky). The endpapers, by the way,
have assorted poses of Jinnicky -- amusing and attractive.
J.L. Bell: I shouldn't think "blue stocking" comes from mid-17th
century
Puritan Parliament, as the same idiom ("bas bleue") exists in
French and,
like the English phrase, refers to intellectual women. I'll try to remember
to see if the OED has any comments on the phrase. (The "Webster's
Collegiate" I have to hand says it's from 18th century literary clubs
called
Bluestocking society, and dates it to 1790, but I should think for the
clubs
to take such a name, the meaning must already have existed -- although if
it's originally French, that might be when it came into English).
Ruth Berman

From: Tigerbooks at a...
Date: Thu Sep 20, 2001 8:17 pm
Subject: Re: [Nonestica] purple pictures in oz
In a message dated 9/20/01 2:41:28 PM Pacific
Daylight Time, berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu writes:
In "Purple
Prince," my copy is lacking the CP opposite p. 136. I would guess this is
a
view of Randy and Kabumpo entering Jinnicky's palace, and not a doublet of
any b&w illo, although if it's a portrait of Jinnicky alone alone, it might
be similar to the b&w view of Jinnicky inside the chapter (or if it's a
view
of Regalia, as is possible from the placement, it could possibly be a
portrait of Hoochafoo or Chalulu and thus a doublet).
The plate opp. P 136 is of Chalulu reading a very long scroll.
David Maxine

From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at m...>
Date: Fri Sep 21, 2001 9:37 am
Subject: off topic: blue stocking
So I looked in the OED, and found that "blue stocking" was applied to
both a
parliament and to intellectual woman, but by separate developments from the
same root meaning. The root meaning is "wearing blue stockings"
(pause for
gasps of surprise), meaning "not wearing black stockings,"
meaning "not
formal, not elegant." Rather like calling Americans during the
Revolutionary
War "homespun." In the sense of "inelegant boors,"
applied to the Puritan
"Little Parliament" of 1653. Around 1750, a London socialite,
Mrs. Montague,
and some of her friends who were also hostesses, disgusted by the
(sometimes
ruinous) passion for gambling that had taken over many gatherings, set up
literary-discussion-parties by way of competition. They did not require
formal dress for attendance at their parties, and some of the guests wore
blue stockings instead of black. Someone (Admiral Boscawen's biographer, in
the bio published 1806, claimed it had been the Admiral) took to calling
this kind of gathering a "Blue Stocking Society," probably also
intending to
sneer at them as boors. The name caught on, but so did the kind of
gathering, and with the popularity of the kind of gathering, the name
shifted its meaning, and by about 1790 "Blue Stocking Society"
meant
"Montague House type parties" and by extension "blue
stocking" meant
"learned or literary women." OED doesn't comment on the French
"bas bleu,"
but evidently it was a translation of the English.
The OED comments on "blue-nose," but not very helpfully. To them,
it means a
kind of purplish potato grown in Nova Scotia, a nickname for a Nova
Scotian,
or a kind of clam.
Ruth Berman

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Fri Sep 21, 2001 11:24 am
Subject: OFF TOPIC: The Blues
Ruth Berman wrote:
<<I shouldn't think "blue stocking" comes from mid-17th
century Puritan
Parliament, as the same idiom ("bas bleue") exists in French and,
like the
English phrase, refers to intellectual women. I'll try to remember to see
if the OED has any comments on the phrase.>>
You'll see the OED's references to bluestocking parliamentarians a century
before the bluestocking ladies made their appearance in the language. Both
uses of the term had their roots in the same phenomenon: wearing non-white
stockings as a sign of eschewing formal court dress, at least for a while.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Fri Sep 21, 2001 10:38 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE supporting cast
Here are some thoughts on various secondary characters in PURPLE PRINCE.
FALEERO
-------
Faleero is obviously more than a walk-on, of course--she's the villain who
drives the plot. KABUMPO stated that she's princess of the forest
neighboring Pumperdink; here it's clear she rules that "domain" [50].
As in
that earlier book, she's said to be a fairy, but exactly how is unclear.
PURPLE PRINCE in fact refers to Faleero both as an "old witch"
[e.g., 29]
and "an old fairy" [e.g., 60]. Perhaps she's some minor sort of
immortal
who's also studied witchcraft. She's certainly attracted a coven of witches
[58-9], an echo of MACBETH (along with the deposed king and, later that
same chapter, soothsaying). If water is fatal to all witches, Faleero's
touch of immortality would explain how she survives being carried through
several lakes and then hosed off by Kabumpo [264].
Another mystery about Faleero is why Randy recognizes her voice coming from
Nishibis after only one quick and distant encounter when no one else in
Pumperdink does [41, 59].
Faleero's brief reign of terror in Pumperdink seems to be based on a
resentful asceticism associated with Puritan fanatics: "she
immediately
passed laws against all kinds of amusement" [213]. She fights off a
military coup by transforming soldiers but unaccountably leaves their
general free to seek help [214-6]. Thompson says she "turned a cook
into a
cocoanut [sic] and had him baked in a pie" [214], yet because the pie
went
uneaten the cook could be restored [266]. Somehow, therefore, transformed
people can survive being baked but not digested. Another cook seems to be
in place by page 244. These are presumably two of Hashem, Friem, and
Stirem, the characters who opened KABUMPO worrying about a cake.
In one of her many summary judgments, Thompson's Ozma transforms Faleero
into a raven as punishment at the end. This seems to rob the old witch of
her ability to do magic, even though she retains the same personality
[266].
NANDYWOG
--------
About Oz's little giant I have nothing to say except that this is Kabumpo's
chance to suddenly feel very small, the way the Cowardly Lion experienced
Crunch and the Hungry Tiger the Bigwigs.
POLYCHROME
----------
Is PURPLE PRINCE Polychrome's first appearance in a Thompson book? She and
Kabumpo are already acquainted, which might imply she's traveled to the
Emerald City in the Thompson years. On the other hand, she knows where
Kabumpo's home is, and the elephant says merely that she "has often
visited
in Oz"--not specifying the capital [169]. We know from TIN WOODMAN
that
Polychrome has been to the Gillikin Country (though Mrs. Yoop said she was
there only briefly before being transformed). Perhaps Poly's been to
Pumperdink itself.
Baum doesn't seem to have thought that the rainbow could support people's
weight, or else Trot and her friends could have escaped Sky Island on it.
But Neill was taken enough with the image of crossing the rainbow to Oz to
reuse it for another weighty animal in LUCKY BUCKY. And, of course, it
appeared in stage and early movie scripts based on the Oz books.
Ozwoz
-----
PURPLE PRINCE is fairly gun-heavy for an Oz book. First the Torpedomen and
Torpedodo shoot off their "firearms" and "firewings"
[79], and then Ozwoz's
army shoots bullets at Kabumpo [221]. All this shooting is ineffectual, of
course, especially in contrast to the gunplay of PIRATES.
Randy reprimands Ozwoz for practicing magic in Oz, but the wozard easily
fobs him off with a claim that Ozma never explicitly outlawed
"wozardry."
Then Ozwoz wins the boy over with a demonstration of the wooden soldiers
(Randy's "burning up with curiosity") and a dip in the castle
pool [226-8].
Of course, Randy's not that worried about people practicing magic in Oz
when the practitioner is his friend Jinnicky.
I don't see anyone explicitly mentioning Ozwoz in Ozma's presence (Randy
tells his uncle that Johnwan came from Jinnicky), but the travelers do tell
of their adventures, so the little queen of Oz presumably learns about
Ozwoz practicing magic. In fact, she would learn that a principal part of
his magic has been to create a very powerful army in the midst of her
realm. Yet she shows no alarm about this.
Ruth Berman wrote:
<<On viewing all sides from a safe distance -- that might be meant as
an
indication that he walked around it in a circle with a long radius?>>
The sentence I highlighted referred to Ozwoz observing the blue glass
bottle around Jinnicky, Kabumpo, and Randy. For him to keep a safe distance
from the Jinn's magic while looking at such a large bottle from all sides,
his survey would probably have had to take the better part of an hour!
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Fri Sep 21, 2001 10:38 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE art
In my earlier remarks on Neill's art for PURPLE PRINCE, I meant he didn't
use black ink outlines for the background of the cover--not, as I typed,
"blank ink," which could be yet another Ozian paradox.
Also, I neglected to note how Neill chose a wide variety of chapter-opening
frames for this book, with no pattern that I can discern. The result is one
of the less "designed" of this stretch of Thompson titles.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <DinnerBell at t...>
Date: Sun Sep 23, 2001 1:35 am
Subject: Re: [Nonestica] PURPLE PRINCE supporting cast
J. L. Bell:
>PURPLE PRINCE in fact refers to Faleero both as an "old
witch" [e.g., 29]
>and "an old fairy" [e.g., 60]. Perhaps she's some minor sort
of immortal
>who's also studied witchcraft.
That's basically the idea I took with my short story, "The Banishment
of
Faleero." Note that Faleero seems to be the first evil fairy in the Oz
series. Randy and Kabumpo admit that there are both good and bad fairies,
yet we have only seen good ones in the past.
>Is PURPLE PRINCE Polychrome's first appearance in a Thompson book?
No, that was in GRAMPA, another book in which characters used the rainbow
to
reach Oz, although, in that case, their starting point was the sky.
>Randy reprimands Ozwoz for practicing magic in Oz, but the wozard
easily
>fobs him off with a claim that Ozma never explicitly outlawed
"wozardry."
>Then Ozwoz wins the boy over with a demonstration of the wooden
soldiers
>(Randy's "burning up with curiosity") and a dip in the castle
pool [226-8].
>Of course, Randy's not that worried about people practicing magic in Oz
>when the practitioner is his friend Jinnicky.
True, although Jinnicky is there for a definite purpose, and isn't using
his
magic to harm others.
>I don't see anyone explicitly mentioning Ozwoz in Ozma's presence
(Randy
>tells his uncle that Johnwan came from Jinnicky), but the travelers do
tell
>of their adventures, so the little queen of Oz presumably learns about
>Ozwoz practicing magic. In fact, she would learn that a principal part
of
>his magic has been to create a very powerful army in the midst of her
>realm. Yet she shows no alarm about this.
I have actually thought of a few ideas for a dialogue between Ozwoz and
Ozma, in which the wozard defends his right to practice magic and maintain
an army. Perhaps I should write them down somewhere.
Nathan

From: "djgobble" <djgobble at e...>
Date: Sun Sep 23, 2001 7:41 am
Subject: Re: [Nonestica] PURPLE PRINCE supporting cast
J.L. Bell wrote:
>
> POLYCHROME
> ----------
> Is PURPLE PRINCE Polychrome's first appearance in a Thompson book? She
and
> Kabumpo are already acquainted, which might imply she's traveled to
the
> Emerald City in the Thompson years. On the other hand, she knows where
> Kabumpo's home is, and the elephant says merely that she "has
often
visited
> in Oz"--not specifying the capital [169]. We know from TIN
WOODMAN that
> Polychrome has been to the Gillikin Country (though Mrs. Yoop said she
was
> there only briefly before being transformed). Perhaps Poly's been to
> Pumperdink itself.
> Baum doesn't seem to have thought that the rainbow could support
people's
> weight, or else Trot and her friends could have escaped Sky Island on
it.
> But Neill was taken enough with the image of crossing the rainbow to
Oz to
> reuse it for another weighty animal in LUCKY BUCKY. And, of course, it
> appeared in stage and early movie scripts based on the Oz books.
Polychrome made a very brief appearance in GRAMPA. After finding King
Fumbo's head in the clouds, she helps Grampa and crew get back to earth by
walking down the rainbow, so Thompson certainly thought a rainbow could
hold
a person's weight.
Dan Gobble

From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date: Tue Sep 25, 2001 7:26 pm
Subject: PURPLE PRINCE miscellany
Before starting PURPLE PRINCE, I noted the tendency of some of Thompson's
animals to roll their eyes a lot. Kabumpo avoids that annoying action.
Instead, we see a woman in Stair Way "rolling her huge purple eyes
around
at Kabumpo" [93], and Jinnicky "rolling his glass eyes
tragically" [247].
Isn't it a lucky coincidence that Kabumpo and Randy enter Torpedo Town
through a door that "only opens once in every hundred years" [86]?
Jinnicky says "Blue incense only works after three o'clock in the
morning"
[200]. However, his incense in a blue bottle "works in the
daytime" [220].
I'm glad he can keep those straight.
Do two clicks on their remote control cause Ozwoz's soldiers to salute or
to about-face and march? Page 229 implies the former, 230 says the latter.
Jinnicky says, "The only way to restore people who have been turned to
wood
is to burn the wood" [255]. However, earlier in the book we've heard
about
Peg Amy, who was transformed into a tree and restored without the use of
matches. Other Oz books have, of course, described other people turned into
wooden objects.
On the other hand, Thompson is careful to make one aspect of Oz's magic
consistent. She states that Randy merely "overcomes" the
combinoceros
[181], and inserts the same word into the conditions for Regalia's king
[134]. She thus adapts the traditional princely duty of slaying a monster
to preserve the rule that Oz's animals are immortal.
Speaking of immortality, Jinnicky promises to make Randy his "sole
heir"
[269]. How meaningful is such a promise? Of course, Randy's inheriting
Regalia from his father even though the man is still alive.
Jinnicky's statement that Randy is "the best and only boy friend I
have
ever had" [258] has implications on his relationship with Ginger, the
"small, turbaned slave" who brings food when the Jinn rings his
dinner bell
[183]. In addition, since Ozma has another such dinner bell [251], Ginger
must be in the position of a waiter with two tables to look after.
I noted that in JACK PUMPKINHEAD Jinnicky mentioned a magic umbrella, and
wondered if it had any relation to Button-Bright's. Here the Jinn's
umbrella turns out to be red [141]. It seem to be connected to his magic
[227], but not transportation: Jinnicky can't use it to cross the Deadly
Desert.
Jinnicky calls Kabumpo "my dear old Wackajamia" [140]. In YANKEE,
Thompson
creates a country in Oz called Wackajammy.
Thompson says there's a "crimson arch" leading into Quadlingland.
And from
that landmark the Pumperdink travelers can see "five castles in plain
view"
[124]. Might Thompson have been thinking of the barons' castles from JACK
PUMPKINHEAD? They're actually some distance from the border, according to
the Oz Club map, so perhaps these are Quadling castles we haven't
encountered yet.
Finally, as if Randy isn't enough of a catch for Planetty, he's also able
to dance--that is, assuming that "showed Ozwoz the Gilliken [sic] clod
and
hop" means dancing [230].
J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...